The relativity of time
by sevenofmine
Summary: A one shot taking place at the very beginning of the episode 'Relativity'.


**I dedicate this story to Robert Bruns, a fellow trekkie who recently passed away. I met him in a Star Trek Voyager group on facebook and chatted with him a few times. I had hardly time to get to know him better and wished I had.**

**May he rest in peace and boldly go where no one has gone before…**

„Well, next time I'll be in the neighborhood, I drop by and say hello," the Lieutenant said and headed off in the opposite direction. She sighed and continued her way out of Engineering.

She didn't know this man, he was probably going to die. Most of these people were already sentenced to death, not only by the bomb but also by the heavy damage it will suffer while and after the ship's arrival in the Delta Quadrant.

She didn't know why but it made her uneasy to think about it. As a drone, she had taken thousands of lives, but each life had something special. The Lieutenant she has spoken with, he had family, friends and perhaps even a girlfriend, but none of them will ever see him again.

Will he die in the battle while fighting the Kazon, or any other species in the Quadrant?

Will his life be unnecessary or will he die in honor?

She didn't remember his name, probably he didn't have the time to make friends on the ship. She picked up some strange sensor readings and entered a Jeffery tube. She hated crawling in here, it was so small and she couldn't stand as straight as she usually did.

She sat down and took out her Tricorder with which she has been provided by Captain Braxton. "I localized the temporal distortions. Deck four, section forty-nine." She opened the door and could finally stand up again. She reread the data to be sure that she was at the right spot.

It was very dark in here and was glad for her cloaked ocular implant. She had a look inside and raised an eyebrow. "I found the weapon," she explained.

She received orders and continued with disabling one of the EPS relays. This must be noticed, she thought and knew that she had only a few moments left before being discovered.

"The weapon is out of phase," she noticed. "You sent me to the wrong time frame," she added and immediately got an answer:

"At least we now know where the weapon was placed. Now we have to determine, when," the First Officer said.

Her Tricorder beeped and she read the information. "I've been detected, I must leave," Seven said alarmed and packed together her few things. She didn't even want to think about what happened if she got caught or even seen.

Braxton would have to send her back again and re-write the timeline again and again. She did not want to take this risk and she needed to continue her assignment. After all, she was finished in this time frame, now she only needed to know when the weapon was brought to its place.

This would be harder to determine and after all, she couldn't travel so often anymore. Who else would they use if not her? She was the best choice, her ocular implants were better than the sensors of the future. Would they ask the captain first?

She wouldn't have to hide so much and also have more authority codes. Seven hardly listened to the orders and did what was asked for automatically. "Understood," she answered and turned around.

"Scramble the locking mechanism before they will get in," the Captain said but Seven was already doing so. What was taking them so long? Were they discussing the procedure – again?

Seven knew she had hardly time and so did Captain Braxton. But his first officer always wanted to be on the safe side, she assumed that he liked her but it was nothing to think about right now. She sighed in relief when the transporter beam was initialized and only a few moments later she reappeared on board of the Relativity.

That was close, she thought but before she could materialize completely, she felt what the Commander has warned her of. The consequences of too much time travelling in a too short time.

She felt the floor under her breaking down and actually it was her who was falling down on the ground. She closed her eyes, they were too heavy.

The assignment – needed to wait.

Tempus fugit, but now she seemed to have all the time in the world.


End file.
